by Dean Traylor

Created on: August 12, 2010   Last Updated: September 02, 2010

The person who recorded and posted one of two YouTube videos claims it shows something huge, reptilian, and mysterious flying above a Papua New Guinea beach. He  tries to describe it as definitive proof that the Ropen, a "living dinosaur," has finally been caught on video; it's a claim that supports what many creationists believe is evidence that humans and dinosaurs actually lived (and still live) at the same time. However, after all the pop-up captions, commentaries,  and a few blurry camera shots, the claim that the ropen does exists appears to be premature.

Early in the video, one gets a good view of the "creature." And immediately, something other than the "bat-like" wings, appendage on the back of the head, and the long, repitilian tail is present.  The contours of the sleek wing, body and tail, look more like its covered with feathers. The tail itself looks like one or two long feathers. It doesn't even look like the prehistoric pterosaur (which is not a dinosaur, by the way); another claim made about the Ropen.

Ropen is a legend told by the natives throughout Papua New Guinea. It goes by several names, based on the islands where they were supposedly spotted. Most natives in rural areas describe the beast as being nocturnal and  producing bioluminescent light.

Over the years, several Americans and Europeans (mostly missionaries) reported seeing the beast.  During World War Two, one American soldier, Duane Hodgkinson, claimed to have seen this giant monster. However, he didn’t come forward with his eyewitness account until he was interviewed in a video in 2005 by cryptozoologist, author and videographer on the subject, Jonathon Whitcomb.

Although Ropen is generally a legend in Papua New Guinea, the beast has garnered serious interests from a group of Creationists and cryptozoologists. When researching the beast on the Internet, this writer came across names like Whitcomb, David Woetzels, Paul Nation, and Carl Baugh. Nation is a self-described “adventurist” and cryptozoologist. Baugh is the director of the Texas based Creation Science Museum – an organization that funds expeditions meant to prove that dinosaurs and men existed at the same time. Whitcomb, Woetzels, and Nation are also associated with this museum. In Nation’s case, the museum funded some of his expeditions between

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